Hubpixed is the first of its kind of project, originally posted on kicksarter, way back on Feb, 2016. The idea was later on copied by many others. However, the original is still continued to be loved by Pi Zero lovers.

It is now possible for you to order the Hubpixed here on referencedesigner ( You can also look at ebay and amazon).

To use a Raspberry Pi 3, you need an HDMI TV, and HDMI Cable and at least a keyboard. The board then boots up showing console messages right on the Television. This method works, however, it needs a TV and a keyboard, which may not be convenient all the times.

This is where PiSerilaxed comes into picture. It is a tiny little board that slips in the USB Port of your laptop on one end and on the 5 Pins of the 40 Pin Connector on the Raspberry Pi 3 board. When you power on the Raspberry Pi board, it shows console messages on the Serial Port of your laptop.

Here are the steps needed to use your Pi Serialixed

1. Download the latest version of the Raspbian stretch lite and burn your SD Card.
2. On the SD card there is a file called config.sys - open this file and add the following line in the end

enable_uart=1

3. Insert this SD card into Raspberry Pi 3.

4. Now insert the Pi Serialixed in the Raspberry Pi 3 with 5 Pins of PiSerialixed aligning exactly with the outermost 5 corner pins
of Raspberry Pi 3.

5. Now insert the Pi Serialixed in your Laptop and check computer -> Properties -> Device Manager. Check the COM Port Number of the Serial Port.

It should show up something similar to this

6. Download Putty if you do not have and open the Serial Port with the settings as follows

7. Now power on the Raspberry Pi 3 and you should see the console message.

It has been over 15 days since the HubPi Cam was listed in kickstarter. The initial response was phenomenal with close to $2000 funded within 1st day itself. We believe that this was mostly driven by the trust our previous backers of Hubpixed, HubPiWi , HubPiWi Blue and Notixed has in our products.

The subsequent response was not as great, possibly because we did not made any cautious effort to publicize our product or the solution. In the meantime we worked on our enclosure design and released two samples of it for 3D printing. This arrived us last week and we are please to provide you some glimpses of the case.

The box looks cute and everything aligns perfectly with the Raspberry Pi Zero ( or the Pi Zero W for that matter). It also aligns perfectly with our board that has a camera connector. We will be posting some more picture and a video in another post.

The enclosure design follows three steps.

Design the case in a 3D Software like Solidworks.

Get 3D Print of the Design ( they will need the STL files)

Verify that the 3D Print works good.

Modify the design to make changes

For volume manufacturing you will need to get the mould built up - it is typically $10K expense. So you need volume here. They will ask for STEP files.

if you are asking the services of a mechanical design engineer, make sure you have the solidworks design files, STL files and the STEP files. Make it easy for future design changes.

While everything looks good, we have at present issue in step 5 above. To be cost effective we need a volume of at least 500 ( 1000 will be great). Otherwise the economy of the project will not work. We therefore request the current backers to support this project. If we do not see much demand for this project we will have no option but to cancel it.

We are glad to launch our new product HubPi Cam. With the launch of Raspberry pi 0 W recently we launched HubPi Cam which is integrated with USB hub,Camera and a case for Raspberry pi 0 W.It does not require any soldering with Raspberry pi zero W, you can connect it through its pogo pins. It supports other Raspberry pie versions and also supports external USB dongles for Wifi,Bluetooth etc.

The Camera

Camera is the key feature of this product. Why to buy only camera at $30 when you can buy HubPi Cam (camera+USB hub+case) at $45? Obviously HubPiwi is a better option if you are wise enough. A high definition camera is connected with HubPi Cam through four pin connector.

The On Board USB Connector for Expansion

One important feature of this product is that, it has the ability to expand through four pin header. You may hook Arduino like design on the USB. The PCB for this design is shown in the picture below.

The Case

The Case is a mechanical enclosure for Raspberry pi 0 W and HubPI Cam. See the right picture below,you can see a single hole that is for the camera and its front side of the case. The left picture is a rear side and it has three connectors for Raspberry pi 0 W and two USB connectors. You can place Raspberry pi 0 W on the bottom of case and above that your HubPi-Cam. Then you can connect your HubPi Cam with Raspberry pi 0 W. This case provides safety and pleasant look.

What can you do with HubPi Cam

Be imaginative a bit and you can do for example the following things with HubPi-Cam

1. Hook this to non smart electricity meters to read readings.

2. Hook it to your Door inside and Activate the camera when some comes in front of your door so it can act like your security device

Risks and challenges

Risk and challenges involves production cost of machanical enclosure and delivery of product. Reference designer provides extra hub board if its unable to deliver mechanical enclosure. Challenges will be more as the number of customers grow.